Holy Play, the Law, and the Gospel

People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the little children come to me. Don’t stop them, because the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” After taking them in his arms, he laid his hands on them and blessed them.

Mark 10:13-16 (CSB)

What do you think of when you read this text from the Gospel writer? Most Protestants, I’d wager, read this and immediately understand the sum of it as speaking to one’s mere faith-filled entrance into God’s kingdom. Baptists, in particular, will hastily run to caveats regarding professing children and credobaptism while paedobaptist brethren will use it as a proof-text of sorts for their own sacramental practices. While all of these are certainly a part of what can be theologically divulged through Mark’s words, to stop there would be akin to entering the fabled Mines of Moria only to stop and stand within its gates. There is theological mithril, if you will, to be mined from the depths of all the varied ways that Scripture speaks to the Christian life if we dare to walk further into its hallowed halls. In this instance, the gem to be uncovered is that of holy play in our Father’s world. 

Of Holy Play 

So what exactly is this holy play of which I speak? One might even scoff at the assertion of such a thing. Well, to put it simply, holy play is just that. Holy. Play. The Christian life is not a call to a life of sackcloth and ash while debating with the theobros on X. Though sackcloth and ash might be required at times, our life in union with Christ is far more beautiful than that. If our Triune God truly owns the cattle on a thousand hills, meaning that he literally owns everything, then how are we, his children, to live? If the Lord is truly the only sovereign, then why are we so quick to walk around as if he isn’t? Part of the beauty of the Christian life is that we are continually called to child-like faith. Our Lord demands it of his disciples throughout the Gospels, and he demands it of us. 

Holy play is what it looks like to, strangely enough, take this call to child-like faith seriously. God’s children are those who galavant around his world with a zealously obedient joy that those separated from him simply cannot understand. This is partly why our Lord rebukes his disciples after their dismissal of the children running to sit in his lap. They, like so many in this world, could not grasp why the Lord of the cosmos would take a moment to sit and play with those children, as if they were an impediment to his work in the world. Us adults clearly haven’t changed too much in that regard over the past two millennia. We too see children, and the way in which they live and play around us, as something that must be overcome and grown out of. Yet, it is into this all-too-serious pride that our Lord comes full of compassion towards those who have forgotten their childhood. As those who are distinctly his by covenant, we sons and daughters of God have been brought into the kingdom of light in order that we might dance, sing, and play with some holy ferocity amongst those choosing to live in darkness. While the kingdoms of men rage and totter, the kingdom of God is a place of exuberant feasting, shouting, and liberating freedom. And why is this? It is because the incarnate Son is King of a kingdom that will persist into new creation. The nations around us will all fall, but God’s new creation nation will only grow like a mighty oak upon the earth. 

If I may, this is why Disney films resonate with us in ways that others often do not. When tragedy strikes and uncertainties prevail amongst those various characters, what do they do? They sing. They dance. And while the messaging may not always be true, good, or beautiful, those very acts strike to the heart of what it means to be a human within God’s world. Maturity does not mean leaving behind our song, dance, and play. It looks like seeing those foundational activities made new. What was once done outside God’s kingdom is now resurrected by our Lord and retooled for the sake of renewal within his city that will prevail for eternity. May the Psalms ever guide us in this regard! 

Law and Gospel in God’s Playful Kingdom 

Now, while the word “play” might be straight-forward enough to understand, if one is courageous enough to rekindle their childhood spirit, what are we to do with the modifier “holy”? It might strike you as an odd way of describing Christian play. I’d put forward, however, that this is precisely the way in which our play must be understood in our Father’s world. We are to play in a manner that adorns the gospel of our good King. There must be a set-apartness to our singing, dancing, and playing that cries out of that great city whose architect and builder is God alone. And in God’s providential ordering of things, the Church has already been given the categories from which we can think through what this child-like yet mature play might look like: law and gospel. 

When you think of God’s law and his gospel, wonder might not be the first word that comes to mind. Rather, you might think of ways in which God’s law, in particular, has been abused and distorted through legalistic rigidity and heavy-handed exhortations. Yet, in the midst of all the ways in which we’ve experienced misapplication of God’s loving law, our beautiful Lord comes to us with simple words:

 “Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

-Matthew 11:28-30 (CSB)

God’s yoke, his law, is wonder-full. As his commandments drive us, in the midst of our pervasive inability and sin, to the only One who can bring rest to our weary souls, he then, out of that gospel declaration of rest and restoration, places that good yoke upon our backs that we might keep walking under its wise and wonderful direction. God’s law is our rule for living within his kingdom. And far from being a yoke that inherently keeps us trampled and lying powerless in the mud, God’s children are those filled with God’s very Spirit that we might keep walking under Christ’s tutelage. When we slip and scrape our knees up, our Father picks us up, dusts us off, and exhorts us to keep moving forward in the directions he’s given to us. His Spirit illuminates his law for the wonder-full thing that it is. 

So how does this law-gospel dynamic relate to the call to holy play? It sets the parameters for what our play is to look like. God’s children are not free to play in any way that they wish. Like a good parent, our Father lovingly reminds us through his law that, “You can play here but not there. Stay away from that deathly road.” It is within the bounds of our Father’s property, as it were, where true, liberating freedom is found that we might joyfully frolic through the field. And this property is far more expansive than we think. Everywhere the Light touches is our King’s domain. Far be it from us to believe as our first parents did, that they were cruelly fenced inside the one place their Father told them not to go. Rather, our Father has placed helpful hedges along the roads we ought not travel, and has now freed us to dance, sing, play, and proclaim his wonderful works throughout the whole world. Our enemies are bound in chains and we are newly planted trees within God’s garden, growing and bearing good fruit with our roots nestled deeply within the Son’s soil. 

God’s gospel says that by simple faith we are adopted into his family and God’s law tells us how to bear our Father’s name and play well in his world. All things are ours because we are God’s children. This is a truth we often do not sit and chew on slowly enough. The Father who has graciously made us sons through his eternal Firstborn does not withhold any good thing from us. Today, do you believe that? All things are ours simply because we are now sons and daughters of the King. Our inheritance, a new world where the Light touches every single place high and low, is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading. This promise founded upon the good redeeming news of what our Father has done through his Son by his Spirit is the reason why we play, why we obey our good, good, Father with an inexpressible joy that darkness’ children cannot understand. 

A Playful Conclusion

While the world appears to be burning, we play. We feast. We dance. We sing. This might seem rather counterintuitive to the all-too-serious, to those who believe or live as if this present, evil age is all there is. But guess what, beloved? Our Father has a good word for you in the midst of our modern turbulence. Receive his kingdom like a child. Run to your Father with all of your fear, your scrapes, and your disobedience, because his yoke is easy and his burden is light. Come without money. There is nothing you can give to the One who already owns the cattle on a thousand hills. Our Father has already accomplished everything required for your adoption and your inheritance. From before the world’s foundation, your Father set his electing sight upon you, desiring to bring you into his family and give you all things. 

So why do we play? Because our Father has made us his children and playing is what children do. But we play as those who are uniquely his. We belong to no other. We are our Father’s children. We bear our Father’s name and the ways in which he’s told us to frolic through his fields can be nothing but loving for us. Our Father gives no bad rules. They are wholly love. They are wholly right. They are wholly beautiful. They are the rules by which our holy imaginations can run wild in our Father’s world. 

So, sons and daughters of God, come and play with us.